SpitfireIX
Posts: 264
Joined: 1/9/2003 From: Fort Wayne IN USA Status: offline
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Hello, all-- This happened to me in Scenario 15, latest version (1.4). Theoretically it belongs in bug reports, but it is so serious I thought I'd mention it here, and see if anyone else has had anything similar happen. And I don't have a repeatable save, as I was playing the AI and didn't realize what had really happened until I peeked at the Japanese forces later. In brief: I was preparing to invade Munda with the First and Second Marine Divisions, the Fourth Marine Regiment, and a few supporting battalions. I had conducted extensive recon and bombing for the previous month, and also had a sub snooping around. Intel indicated about 10,000 Japanese troops, so I figured I had plenty of force to do the job. Anyway, when the bombardment force arrived, it was like that scene in the cartoon where Daffy Duck gets blasted by an array of shotguns pointing in from all four edges of the frame. Expecting little opposition, I had ordered the escorts to bombard. The force sustained several _hundred_ shell hits; four DDs immediately sank. Many other ships were damaged. Then the transports arrived, and suffered a similar hail of shells. By the end of the day, most of the infantry had disembarked--I felt I had to leave the transports to unload, and I also threw in the second wave, which had additional supplies. The troops were sufficiently disrupted that they were unable to dislodge the Japanese division that was entrenched to level 9; eventually I had to cancel the attack. I sent in a second bombardment force to try to reduce the murderous fire on the transports; although I of course ordered the escorts to stand off, Salt Lake City was sunk and Pensacola seriously damaged (memo to self: have Pensacola class stick to escorting CVs in the future). Eventually the defensive fire slacked and I was able to land additional troops and take the island. Following is a list of ships I lost--this does not count cripples that were knocked off by air and subs. All the ones sunk by 5.5" shell were direct casualties. To be continued...
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"I know Japanese. He is very bad. And tricky. But we Americans too smart. We catch him and give him hell." --Benny Sablan, crewman, USS Enterprise 12/7/41
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