Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000 From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku Status: offline
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30 Sep 43 Sub Ward The I-171 was hanging out to the SW of Milne Bay hoping to run into the US carriers (or maybe the damaged Independence), but unfortunately, she ran into an ASW TF, taking a depth charge hit. Heading home for repairs... 5 Fleet Nothing to report. 4 Fleet Some US carriers appeared a little east of Mili and bombed the place with 29 Helldivers, 16 Dauntlesses and 16 Avengers. No lasting damage was done and a Helldiver was taken out by flak. I have 6 subs in the area. I'm going to try and intercept the TF. SE Fleet A bombardment TF composed of Nagato, Mutsu and 4 Fubukis reached Manus with the intent of damaging the airfield (still level 3) to slow down the build up of that facility. Instead, they found an cargo parked there: Night Time Surface Combat, near Manus at 101,119, Range 8,000 Yards Japanese Ships BB Nagato BB Mutsu DD Sagiri DD Yugiri DD Sazanami DD Ushio Allied Ships DD Beale, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk DD Braine, Shell hits 3, and is sunk xAK Yochow, Shell hits 5, and is sunk xAK Beltana, Shell hits 4, and is sunk xAK Goulburn, Shell hits 9, and is sunk I suspect they were carrying supply. Now a bombardment? Nope, not yet: Night Time Surface Combat, near Manus at 101,119, Range 11,000 Yards Japanese Ships BB Nagato, Shell hits 3 BB Mutsu, Shell hits 3 DD Sagiri DD Yugiri DD Sazanami, Shell hits 1 DD Ushio, Shell hits 1, on fire Allied Ships DD Converse, Shell hits 8, on fire DD Dashiell, Shell hits 2 APA Henderson APA Callaway, Shell hits 3, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk APA Cambria, Shell hits 9, and is sunk AK Albireo, Shell hits 4, and is sunk AK Eridanus, Shell hits 7, and is sunk Allied ground losses: 5957 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 203 destroyed, 132 disabled Engineers: 190 destroyed, 191 disabled Vehicles lost 179 (177 destroyed, 2 disabled) Too bad that last APA got away. Some ground unit(s) are hurting though. Now a bombardment? Nope: Night Time Surface Combat, near Manus at 101,119, Range 4,000 Yards Japanese Ships BB Nagato, Shell hits 1 BB Mutsu, Shell hits 1 DD Sagiri DD Yugiri DD Sazanami DD Ushio, heavy fires Allied Ships DD Worden, Shell hits 3, and is sunk APA McCawley, Shell hits 5, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk APA Barnett This one was empty. Finally, the bombardment: Night Naval bombardment of Manus at 101,119 Allied aircraft no flights Allied aircraft losses P-47D2 Thunderbolt: 4 damaged F4U-1 Corsair: 3 damaged P-70 Havoc: 1 damaged PBY-5 Catalina: 6 damaged Japanese Ships BB Mutsu BB Nagato Allied Ships AS Platypus, Shell hits 1 Allied ground losses: 10 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled Airbase hits 2 Runway hits 10 E15K1 Norm acting as spotter for BB Mutsu BB Mutsu firing at 37th Infantry Division E15K1 Norm acting as spotter for BB Nagato BB Nagato firing at Manus It didn't do much, but the Allies lost 4 DDs, 2 APAs, 2 Ask and 3 xAKs, plus a bunch of troops. The troop points lost increased by 80, so that's what, 240 squads lost? (Edit: The damage to the Japanese ships was minor.) I saw a total of 207x 4E sorties, all against the troops at Aitape. In addition, a few dozen 2E sorties hit Talasea. The Okinoshima dropped 125 mines at Aitape. Present for the Allies. SRA Burma China Nothing to report. Other Stuff Reinforcements: 121 Ku T-1: 9 Judy recon, 13 Air Flotilla, training 254 Ku S-1: 18 IJN fighters, 13 Air Flotilla, training 263 Ku S-1: 27 IJN fighters, 1 Air Flotilla, training 265 Ku S-1: 27 IJN fighters, 13 Air Flotilla, training 321 Ku S-1: 18 IJN night fighters, 13 Air Flotilla, training - QUESTION: Do night fighters need to train at night? 381 Ku S-1: 27 IJN fighters, 13 Air Flotilla, Kendari, transferred to 21 Air Flotilla and will train defense on already trained pilots until unit is needed. Zuiho-1: increased to size 27 and will be fighter complement on Mizuho . SC Cha-67: ASW Mizuho completed refit. Nisshin completed refit. I converted 1x30 A6M5 factory to the J1N1-S Irving NF. Should have done that a while ago. The P1Y2 R&D advanced to 10/44 (will become operational 6/44). I got confirmation that the DD MacDonough sank on 5/12/43. That was during a surface action between 4 Japanese DDs and 4 Allied DDs just off Kavieng.
< Message edited by Mike Solli -- 7/20/2018 6:22:09 PM >
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