Bombur -> Another decisive battle (6/30/2005 10:25:42 PM)
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09/30/42 -Yamamoto´s attempt to achieve a decisive victory against the USN surface force gave funny results. Let´s recapitulate his plot. He sent two battleship forces, one against Port Moresby and another against Lunga. As he expected, the US carriers moved to catch the bombardment group directed to PM, while Lunga was left withouth the protection of Carriers. He expected to find relatively small opposition, as BB Washington was heavily damaged in the last battle, so there would be only one or two BB to defend Lunga. Yamamoto´s force against PM included at least 3 Kongo class BB and a number of cruisers and destroyers. Against Lunga, Yamamoto sent his main force, including the Battleships Mutsu, Nagato and Yamato, the heavy cruisers Atago, Maya, Myoko, Haguro and Nachi, plus 2 CL and 5 DD. This formidable force was intercepted by the USN surface force at Guadalcanal. USN forces included BB Washington (the "heavy" damage in the 1st Guadalcanal battle was only flooding, which was almost fully repaired, the ship got only 11 system damage) and North Carolina, plus 8 CA, 2 CL and 12 DD. In other words, the USN were outgunned in Battleships but had more cruisers and destroyers. The American surface forces in Guadalcanal had been reinforced with CA´s and DD´s from the carriers TF´s. Despite the massive firepower of both fleets, no ship was sunk or even suffered heavy damaged. The Nagato got a torpedo and was on fire. An USN DD also got around 30 sys damage and 6 fire. The Japanese TF retreated to the North (to avoid USN carriers in the route back to Shortland/Rabaul) and the bombardment of Lunga was called off . Meanwhile, the Kongos changed their target from PM to Gilli Gilli killing or wounding 558 men in the bombardment, but casuing relatively small damage to the infrastructure (partially recovered from previous attacks). A good new for us is that intel confirmed the sinking of a third IJN CA (Mogami) as result of battle damage in the 1st Battle of Guadalcanal (this is the second one). So what was seem as a devastating defeat to USN is now more like a victory or a draw (3 CA and 2 DD lost for IJN; 1 CA and 9 DD lost for USN). -Well, it seems both sides are unable to achieve a decisive victory with their surface forces. Will Yamamoto committ his remaning Carriers to battle?
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