apbarog
Posts: 3769
Joined: 5/23/2002
Status: offline
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25 Jul 42
In the long war, there's usually only few times when all of the big carriers go up against each other. Today was one of those times.
First, Allied cruisers move north from Townsville and run over RO-64, which is hit by a depth charge. The task force stops near Cairns, in range of a bombardment of Portland Roads, should I choose to continue on without surprise. The ships were not attacked by air from Port Moresby. I've only watched the replay, not gone into the turn yet. OPilot is out of town until Saturday or Sunday, so I'll be taking my time doing this turn.
Hiei, Kirishima and Yamato and escorts go to Tarawa and sink the 2 PT boats there. It would have been beneficial for the enemy to have them stay with the carriers. Or steam right into Tabiteuea and engage the many transports unloading there. Either way, they may have absorbed some of the carrier strikes upcoming.
Instead, they then bombard Tarawa. It's a decent bombardment but not nuclear. The 3rd Marine Defense Battalion guns fired back at the battleships but were silenced before the cruisers engaged.
Night Naval bombardment of Tarawa at 136,128 - Coastal Guns Fire Back!
Allied aircraft
no flights
Allied aircraft losses
PBY-5 Catalina: 13 damaged
PBY-5 Catalina: 1 destroyed on ground
P-40E Warhawk: 4 damaged
Japanese Ships
BB Yamato
BB Kirishima
BB Hiei
CL Yubari
CL Tatsuta
CL Kiso
CL Tama
Allied ground losses:
160 casualties reported
Squads: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled
Non Combat: 4 destroyed, 23 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 1 disabled
Airbase hits 8
Airbase supply hits 3
Runway hits 23
Port hits 10
Port supply hits 2
Troops on Kusaie Island were bombed by Bettys from Truk. So far, the enemy is alternating Kusaie bombings from Truk and Roi Namur each day.
Clark Field is bombed heavily. It is then attacked for the first time. No defender supply.
Ground combat at Clark Field (79,76)
Japanese Deliberate attack
Attacking force 23889 troops, 220 guns, 105 vehicles, Assault Value = 701
Defending force 10850 troops, 202 guns, 162 vehicles, Assault Value = 308
Japanese engineers reduce fortifications to 2
Japanese adjusted assault: 449
Allied adjusted defense: 445
Japanese assault odds: 1 to 1 (fort level 2)
Japanese Assault reduces fortifications to 2
Combat modifiers
Defender: terrain(+), forts(+), leaders(+), preparation(-)
experience(-), supply(-)
Attacker:
Japanese ground losses:
657 casualties reported
Squads: 2 destroyed, 53 disabled
Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 3 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 14 disabled
Vehicles lost 8 (1 destroyed, 7 disabled)
Allied ground losses:
626 casualties reported
Squads: 1 destroyed, 68 disabled
Non Combat: 2 destroyed, 23 disabled
Engineers: 1 destroyed, 7 disabled
Assaulting units:
2nd Engineer Regiment
21st Division
24th Infantry Regiment
2nd Tank Regiment
16th Infantry Regiment
1st Ind Engineer Regiment
23rd Medium Field Artillery Regiment
2nd Field Artillery Regiment
Defending units:
4th Marine Regiment
57th PS Infantry Regiment
192nd Tank Battalion
26th PS Cavalry Regiment
194th Tank Battalion
301st Construction Battalion
1st Constabulary Regiment
Far East USAAF
86th PS Field Artillery Battalion
200th & 515th Coast AA Regiment
Clark Field AAF Base Force
II/Prov'nl SPM Grp
24th PS FA Regiment
I/Prov'nl SPM Grp
35th Avn Sup
!/23rd PS FA Battalion
88th PS Field Artillery Regiment
I Corps
III/Prov'nl SPM Grp
Enemy carriers moved south to a point 4 hexes north of Tabiteuea. Allied carriers moved to the hex just west of Tabiteuea. The massive fight takes place with carrier task forces 4 hexes apart, and there is no reaction.
No strikes in the morning. The enemy strikes first in the afternoon.
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Tabiteuea at 136,134
Weather in hex: Heavy rain
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 13,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 34 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 70
B5N2 Kate x 101
D3A1 Val x 133
D3A2 Val x 19
Allied aircraft
Martlet II x 14
P-39D Airacobra x 7
P-40E Warhawk x 9
F4F-3 Wildcat x 55
F4F-4 Wildcat x 120
Japanese aircraft losses
A6M2 Zero: 8 destroyed
B5N2 Kate: 15 destroyed, 15 damaged
B5N2 Kate: 5 destroyed by flak
D3A1 Val: 37 destroyed, 17 damaged
D3A1 Val: 3 destroyed by flak
D3A2 Val: 6 destroyed, 2 damaged
Allied aircraft losses
F4F-3 Wildcat: 1 destroyed
F4F-4 Wildcat: 2 destroyed
Allied Ships
CV Wasp
CV Formidable, Bomb hits 1 (bounced)
CV Hornet
CV Illustrious
CV Saratoga, Bomb hits 3, on fire
BB North Carolina, Bomb hits 3 (bounced)
CV Lexington, Bomb hits 3
CL Phoenix
CL Mauritius
BB Prince of Wales
CL Honolulu
CL St. Louis
CA Indianapolis
CLAA San Juan
About half of the Zeros engaged before the Allied fighters tore into the bombers. 63 Kates drop torpedoes. All miss. 83 Vals bomb.
Then it was the US and British time to strike.
Afternoon Air attack on TF, near Abemama at 137,130
Weather in hex: Overcast
Raid detected at 80 NM, estimated altitude 14,000 feet.
Estimated time to target is 31 minutes
Japanese aircraft
A6M2 Zero x 76
Allied aircraft
Albacore I x 6
Martlet II x 9
Swordfish I x 12
SBD-3 Dauntless x 216
TBF-1 Avenger x 15
No Japanese losses
Allied aircraft losses
Albacore I: 1 destroyed
Martlet II: 4 destroyed
Swordfish I: 4 destroyed
SBD-3 Dauntless: 13 destroyed, 40 damaged
SBD-3 Dauntless: 1 destroyed by flak
TBF-1 Avenger: 1 destroyed, 3 damaged
Japanese Ships
BB Haruna, Bomb hits 6, on fire
CV Hiyo, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires (fuel storage explosion)
CV Kaga, Bomb hits 2, on fire
CV Hiryu, Bomb hits 1, on fire
CV Soryu, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
CV Shokaku, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires
CV Akagi, Bomb hits 3, on fire
DD Shiranui
DD Urakaze
DD Isokaze, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires
DD Tanikaze
DD Kagero
DD Hamakaze
Yes, the big Allied strike went with just 9 Martlets escorting. Can't explain that one. Multiple US fighter squadrons were set for the same altitude but this is what happened. I will check the settings when I do the turn, but I triple-checked them before sending this turn. Lots of needless aircraft losses, and still the SBDs did well. 13 TBFs dropped torpdoes and all missed. 5 Swordfish and 5 Albacores dropped torpedoes and all missed. No torpedo hits for either side. 179 SBDs dropped bombs.
15 TBFs then went it alone and were all shot down by 64 Zeros. 6 Albacores then tried with similar results.
Wow. Watching the replay with a big battle like this is just awesome. How long will the defensive CAP engage before exposing the bombers? What? I only sent 9 fighters to escort over 200 bombers? Like I said, in a war that literally takes years to play, fights this big are rare and can be decisive. This one was not. The enemy carriers are certainly hurting more than the Allies', but all may survive. With heavy fires, though, it's possible that 3 could be lost. There's a range of outcomes still possible.
What I do know is that the Allied carriers are in good shape. Here's the status (SYS/FLOT/ENG/FIRE):
Lexington 11/0/3/0
Saratoga 17/9-6/8/1
Formidable 2/0/1/0
North Carolina 2/0/1-1/0
I took more damage from the high speed run to get into position. Light cruiser Phoenix is 11/0/4-3/0.
I'm happy with this result. I'd be more happy if more fighters had flown escort. I need to check the actual aircraft losses for the day to see just how bad it was, for both sides. The Allied carriers were in heavy rain. The enemy was in overcast. That may have helped too. The Allies also benefited from having some land based fighters helping cover, as planned.
The complication that I have is that fuel for my carrier task forces is low. Maybe critically low. I needed to run full speed to get to Tabiteuea, and knew that I was draining the fuel quickly. It is mandatory that the carriers take fuel from AOs to get to any safe base. I had 2 replenishment groups to the south of Tabiteuea. I'll have to figure out where to refuel, but I'm sure that it has to be done. The fuel situation could be so bad that I have to refuel in place. I'll know when I check the turn.
Quite a battle. If the enemy battleships that bombarded Tarawa had continued with the carriers, more bombs would have bounced off them, saving the carriers from some hits. I expect to hear that OPilot did not think my carriers would change direction and charge to Tabiteuea.
I'll detail the aircraft losses and probably do another region by region update in the next few days.
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