Mike Solli
Posts: 15792
Joined: 10/18/2000 From: the flight deck of the Zuikaku Status: offline
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17 Dec 43 Sub War Brutal today. It did start off "well" (if you call killing one of a billion xAKs doing well). The I-7 caught and sank another Liberty ship near Pago Pago. Then it all turned south. South of Truk I spotted what I thought was the BB TF (probably minus 1 BB badly damaged). It appeared to be headed toward Truk. What I didn't see behind it was an ASW TF. That TF caught and sank the RO-114. The BB TF is 6 hexes to the SW of Truk. I have plans. More on that later. Just NE of Saipan, the Flasher torpedoed an xAK carrying half an independent mixed brigade. I goofed here. It left Japan and I had set it for coastal, which is a pretty safe bet there. What I didn't realize was that instead of heading straight for Peleliu, it took the grand tour going through Saipan (coastal waters). That's where it got torpedoed. It made for Saipan where it's dropping off the troops. I think she'll survive, at least long enough to deposit her troops on the wrong island. The other transport and the escort made a bee line for Tokyo. I turned off coastal and sent them to their destination. Amazingly, only a few squads were lost. No, it's not over. A Std-B tanker took a torpedo from Steelhead just off Cam Ranh Bay, rolled over, and went down. Fortunately, she was unloaded. Finally, an xAP 7 hexes NW of Truk took a torpedo from Redfin. She was on her way to sneak in to Truk to sneak out some troops. She's still afloat, but has 21 fires, which means she's probably doomed. 5 Fleet Interesting things going on up here, but I'm not exactly sure what. I see two Allied TFs up there, one of a single ship and one of 4 ships. The single ship is headed toward Etorofu and about 15 or so hexes to the SE. I moved some Nells that are training in the area to see if they can get some torpedoes in the water. This unit is actually almost ready to graduate its pilots. Good training exercise. That little Allied ship came within a day of running into 4 BBs, including Yamato and Musashi. Darn! They're past and I'm not turning them around. The other TF is (I think) 4 ships and they're headed toward Umnak and about a dozen hexes south. I have MKB there totalling about 130 or so planes that have been hiding to the SW of Umnak. I'm moving them in to engage. The Jills are loading torpedoes. Let's see what happens! 4 Fleet I'm curious to see what the (alleged) BB TF does tomorrow. If they attempt to bombard Truk, they'll run into ~140 CD guns and >500 mines. Oh yeah, and KB. I'm sortieing KB from Saipan, 5 CVs and 2 CVLs, totalling 210 Zeros, 81 Judies and 102 Jills. This could be fun too. KB won't stick around though. Not worth the risk of subs. SE Fleet Ted hit Truk with 188 bombers today, all against troops. Level 7 forts really help, because they were useless. Flak got 4. SRA Nothing to report. Burma My Helens hit Kalemyo again adding a bit to the damage at the airfield. China You already saw the results above. The only thing to add is the status of my army: Fatigue: 83.5% Disruption: 50.8% Disabled: 11.9% - There are 4 (of 25) divisions with >100 disabled infantry squads. I'm getting a fresh division tomorrow to add to the mix. I'll rest them and attack in a few days, at most. Oh yeah, total infantry squad losses to the Chinese were 433 bring the infantry squad losses to 1452 this month. Other Stuff Reinforcements: 901 Ku T-1, 13 Air Flotilla, 18 Betties, training 901 Ku T-2, 13 Air Flotilla, 12 Mavis, training, it's nice getting another flying boat unit. We just don't have enough of them. They'll eventually patrol from the Home Islands. SS I-45, Glen sub SS I-52, fleet sub
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