FeurerKrieg
Posts: 3397
Joined: 6/15/2005 From: Denver, CO Status: offline
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War Report 1/4/42 Allied SS Sailfish was sunk by depth charges off Kagoshima today.SS Sailfish, sunk 1/4/42. The poor DD Yukikaze, which had taken multiple torpedos from PT boats in the last couple days, today was bombed by TIVs and finally sunk. The ship put up a good fight and it is a shame to see it go. Sallys/Lilys in Malaya finish off a couple ships they hit yesterday, the AK Empire Antelope and the AK Empire Chaucer both were sunk. Non-Ops Air Losses Allies T.IVa - 2 I-16c - 1 Martin 139 - 1 Imperial Air Force Ki-21 Sally - 1 Ki-51 Sonia - 2 G4M1 Betty - 1 B5N Kate - 1 Feurer Krieg Area Report Pretty quiet. Alf's based on a floatplane tender at Buin are starting to spot Allied ships at Lunga. The AV will move to Munda to allow for better spotting of the Allied fleet to continue vectoring subs, which as shown below continues to be rather effective in this area. Another light cruiser was stabilized at Kwajalein and sent back to the Home Islands with a PC escort for final repairs. Based on sub actions below, it would seem the allies are pulling troops back from Lunga, but not sure exactly what is happening, see below for more details. Sub Ops: The best news of the day is the submarine actions near Lunga. In the morning darkness, the RO-68 took aim at the AP Esperance Bay about 60 miles southeast of Lunga, unfortuantely it missed, but the Esperance wasn't off the hook yet. In the daylight hours, Commander K. Tsukuda of the I-160 wasn't going to be outdone by U.Torisaki of the RO-63 (who hit 3 ships in previous days). Early in the day, the I-160 took aim at the AP Manunda, hitting with one torpedo, and causing casulties indicating that the ships was loaded. With loaded ships in the area, Commander Tsukuda took the sub under and continued to stalk the unescorted convoy. Later in the day, the Esperance Bay was found to be somewhat seperated from the rest of the convoy, having been busy doing manuevers after its torpedo scare from the RO-68. Commander Tsukuda could see no escorts nearby and charged the doomed Esperance Bay on the surface, firing torpedo after torpedo, scoring 4 hits, exploding ammo stored by the troops onboard and sending the ship down fast, along with many men and a couple guns and vehicles of the No. 106 RAN Base Force (the units ID being picked up on a hastily sent, unencoded radio message).AP Esperance Bay in happier days. It was sunk by the SS I-160 on 1/4/42 while carrying elements of the No106 RAN Base Force. The AP Royal T Frank (one of RO-63 victims) was spotted under the waves on the beach at Lunga, having sunk earlier today. I-160, having hit two loaded APs, one of which sunk, is out of ammo and headed back to Truk. There are still more subs blocking the way home for the ships at Lunga though, and hopefully tomorrow will bring more kills.The I-160, another talented submarine. Considering that the RO-68 encountered the Esperance Bay before the I-160 did, the ships was obviously leaving, but it was leaving with a base force on board. It is unclear if the base force was ever even unloaded, or if the Allies had planned to build up the base, and then changed their minds. Time will tell, three NLF forces will be landing at Lunga once they have rested and rebuilt at Truk for a couple weeks. At-Risk Damaged Ship Report PG Hakkaisan Maru 66/82/0 (Wallis) AP Ryujo Maru 49/42/2 (Tarakan) AP Tatsuho Maru 18/4/0 (Tarakan) TK Gen'yo sunk in port at Makin. DD Yukikaze sunk off Tarakan. BB Fuso fires extinguished. PG Fukui Maru in port at Makin.
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< Message edited by Feurer Krieg -- 10/2/2005 7:31:42 AM >
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