tocaff
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January 21, 1943 Tarawa
Intel
15th AA Regiment is located at Nagoya.
15th Mixed Brigade is located at Changsha.
21st Air Flotilla is located at Singapore.
Hensui Construction Battalion is located at Sasebo.
42nd Road Construction Battalion is located at Gili Gili.
122nd IJN Base Force is located at Nagasaki.
11152 men are based at Paramushiro Jima.
31st AA Regiment is located at Sapporo.
13th AA Regiment is located at Maizuru.
25th AA Regiment is located at Nagato.
Radio transmissions detected at Niigata.
Burma Area Army is located at Rangoon.
Recon
Catalina I takes recon photos of Rangoon 3 X SS, 1 X AK, 19 LCUS 38480/488/15
F-5A Lightning takes recon photos of Taung Gyi vacant
PBY Catalina takes recon photos of Makin 5 LCUS 9800/34/0
PBY Catalina takes recon photos of Tarawa heavy damage to airfield, moderate damage to port, 4 LCUs 30280/120/0
PBY Catalina takes recon photos of Wyndham 3 X DE, 6 X AK, 25 LCUs
Combat
A Kate attacked the SS Triton, but the sub escaped unscathed.
Dinahs took their daily recon photos of Kweiyang and not much later the air strikes came in. The first wave caused moderate damage and the second inflicted light damage.
MSW Romney continued sweeping the mine field at Trimcomalee
RAAN DDs attacked a sub 70 miles from Brisbane. No hits were reported.
The Coastal Guns at Tarawa fired at TF 1010 as it commenced to unload the assault troops.
DD Balch, Shell hits 2, on fire
AP Van Neck, Shell hits 14, on fire, heavy damage
DD Lansdowne, Shell hits 6, on fire
AP Van Diemen, Shell hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
MSW Whippoorwill, Shell hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AP Speelman, Shell hits 1
AP Siberg, Shell hits 8, on fire, heavy damage
AP Le Maire
MSW Swallow, Shell hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
AP Camphuys, Shell hits 15, on fire, heavy damage
DD Downes, Shell hits 14, on fire, heavy damage
AP Meigs, Shell hits 18, on fire, heavy damage
DD McCalla, Shell hits 17, on fire
AP Bloemfontrin
CA Houston, Shell hits 11
AP President Polk
AP U.S. Grant, Shell hits 1
AP Heywood, Shell hits 2, on fire
AP President Garfield, Shell hits 1
Allied losses were very heavy.
The Coastal Guns at Tarawa continued firing at TF 1010
CA Houston, Shell hits 44, on fire
AP Van Neck, Shell hits 13, on fire, heavy damage
AP Van Cloon, Shell hits 3, on fire
AP Speelman, Shell hits 2
AP St. Mihel, Shell hits 4, on fire
AP Westralia, Shell hits 1
AP U.S. Grant, Shell hits 5, on fire
AP Crescent City, Shell hits 2, on fire
AP Fuller, Shell hits 3
Again the Allied forces took terrible losses. A DD and 3 X AP were sunk today. The good news was that the APs were empty.
The assault wave at Tarawa hit the beaches and loses were very heavy. Japanese defenders also had heavy casualties despite being deeply dug in.
12 X F4F-4 and 109 X SBD attacked Tarawa causing moderate damage and destroying a lone Betty on the ground. 2 of the dive bombers were lost while another 22 were damaged.
The Japanese bombarded the Allied troops that have come ashore at Tarawa. Allied loses were very light.
The IJN TF 135 miles from Noumea was attacked by 6 hapless B-24Ds, all of which were downed by the 110 X Zero on CAP. Ten of the Zeros sustained damage.
34 X F4F-4 and 7 X P-40E on CAP over Noumea and engaged 11 X Zero who came by. All of the Japanese planes were destroyed in return for a lone Wildcat was damaged.
IJN DDs encountered a mine field at Normanby Island
The SS Porpoise attacked Japanese shipping near Deboyne Island, but failed to achieve positive results. She slipped away unharmed as the escort was never able to find her.
Bill watches the large numbers of ships leaving Pearl Harbor bound for a place that his old wall map in the Pentagon probably had a pin in. O'Bannon is rapidly nearing completion of repairs and a trip to a US port looks more remote with each passing day. Yesterday he caught a glimpse of the CV Essex as she glided out of Pearl and he marveled at how huge she was. With this kind of power he wonders how the US can do anything but win the war.
Gunny's platoon boards landing craft by climbing down the cargo nets as they have drilled countless times. The small craft moves away from the transport and begins to circle with other boats as they gather into the assault formations. Once this has been done they head in towards the beaches of Tarawa. The planes roar overhead, but the big BBs strangely remain silent. There seems to be no opposition from the island. As they get closer all hell breaks loose. Japanese gunners are pounding the landing craft and the amphibious TF that they have just left. Orsini never imagined that he could be so scared as he is now. Gunny is moving among the men and quietly talking to them in an effort to calm them.
“Orsini,” he says, “You scared?” Orsini nods to the affirmative. “Good,” says Gunny over the growing din of explosions, “Me too. You'll do fine today, after all you're a Marine.” He pats Orsini on the back and moves along inside the boat talking and inspecting.
The small boat continues to bounce along towards the growing hell that is Tarawa. Suddenly a crewman yells for the Marines to stand by. A little later Orsini is climbing over the side and falling into the water. Another Marine helps him to regain his balance and they head towards the beach. Machine guns seem to be chattering from everywhere and suddenly a roar comes from behind as a ship explodes. There seem to be explosions everywhere and amid the chaos the man next to Orsini goes down. Joe grabs the man to help him reach the shore and begins to drag him along. As he reaches the beach Gunny magically appears and tells him, “Leave him, he's dead.” Joe drops the body and scrambles forward looking for some cover. No amount of training can ever prepare a man for this and his being scared has escalated to that of sheer terror. The call to move forward is given and the Marines surge forward, as they've been trained to do. Orders are followed without thinking and the men begin to drop all around Joe as the Japanese gunners sweep their killing field. The noise level is unbelievable and Joe can barely hear the man next to him screaming in pain as an explosion tears at his body. The beach is littered with broken bodies and destroyed landing craft. The Marines rise up again to surge forward only to be shredded for the few yards gained. If there is a hell then this surely is it.
Two Infantry Divisions and and Engineer Regiment are pinned on the beaches. Hard lessons are being learned from this bloody operation called Snowball. The Japanese fight to the last bullet and will die before giving up. Advances are measured in yards and the casualties are a horror.
The 25th USA Infantry Division is loaded and will depart Canton Island tomorrow. It is hoped that it will arrive in time to save Operation Snowball. In the meantime the troops earmarked for Makin Island rest.
Fighter loses among the CVs have reached alarming levels and 2 CVs will return to Baker Island to refill their squadrons before returning to station. It is hoped that a rotation can keep the force strength up to acceptable levels. The replenishment CVE was drained on the first day of action and she is returning with additional planes from Baker.
FDR reads the brief and looks at the military men in his office and asks, “Is Snowball in as much trouble as I think or are these the kind of losses that we can expect in amphibious operations?”
The answer is a subdued, “Mr. President we're learning as we go in this war and the Japanese are tough. Yes, heavy losses on defended beaches are to be expected. No Snowball will succeed.”
Note
For some unexplained reason my bombardment TF reverted, on it's own, to a surface combat mission for 2 consecutive days and now won't take the bombardment order at all. The ships have a full load of ammo, plenty of fuel and an aggressive commander of high quality.
< Message edited by tocaff -- 12/11/2010 9:59:56 AM >
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