Cuttlefish
Posts: 2454
Joined: 1/24/2007
From: Oregon, USA
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But, in case Signals can neither be seen or perfectly understood, no Captain can do very wrong if he places his Ship alongside that of an Enemy.
- Nelson: Plan of attack before Trafalgar, 9 October 1805
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1/6/1943 – 1/12/1943
12 January 1943 was without doubt the most savage turn of the game so far. Battle raged on both sides of Australia and there were triumphs and losses aplenty for both Japan and the Allies. But amid the air strikes, the fierce battles, and grim losses, one factor dominated the turn: eleven PT boats that never fired a single shot.
A Grim Efate: the turn started well for Japan. Q-Ball reinforced his floundering attack at Efate. The fresh troops captured the base but Yamato and friends swooped in and annihilated the invasion force while it was still unloading. Lost were 8 xAPs, including Presidents Adams, Jefferson, and Jackson, a pair of xAKs, and two Canadian corvettes. Japanese torpedo bombers had sunk another pair of APs there a couple of days before so at least that victory was a bit costly for the Allies.
Storm Over Ambon: my invasion came off almost like clockwork. Q-Ball didn’t see the horde of transports or guess that an invasion was in the works until my ships were almost on top of him. He responded with vigorous air attacks, an SCTF built around Prince of Wales, and air cover from several small carriers.
KB deflected all the air attacks; no Japanese ships were hit. And Japanese air attacks sank CVE Copahee and CVL Hermes, as well as a DE, an XAKL, and 4 xAKs that found themselves caught within range (two of the xAKs were hauling fuel). But at a cost; 125 Japanese carrier planes were lost (63 Kates, 30 Zeros, and 32 Vals). This was on top of 30 carrier planes lost the day before because two Val groups mistakenly had their secondary setting at "port attack" instead of "rest." Allied air losses weren’t light: he has lost something like 100 planes over last the two days to various causes, including some Wildcats that went down with their carriers.
Meanwhile POW’s group encountered a Japanese task force based around Fuso. POW just mopped the floor with Fuso. It wasn’t even close. But the rest of the Japanese ships did some damage, sinking CA Hawkins and DD Blue while losing DD Michishio. But Fuso is not going to survive and CA Suzuya might not make it either. This was tactically an Allied victory but my ships did their job, screening the carriers and transports and forcing his ships to retire.
So far, despite the heavy loss of carrier planes, everything was going well. But…there were 11 PT boats at Namlea, right next door to Ambon. They never successfully intercepted anything and never fired a shot. But their presence so unhinged my amphibious TF commanders (who were on threat tolerance “high”) that they all turned around. The one TF that did unload troops re-embarked them almost immediately. So despite the heroic efforts of my air and surface forces to screen them my three invading divisions did not place a single soldier on Ambon. Gah!
KB is down to about 275 planes at the moment. I have fresh surface forces at hand, a battleship group with Mutsu, Yamashiro, Hyuga, and Ise. My transports are still close by. The question is, do I try to land again? Or call it off before Q-Ball can bring real carriers and more surface forces to bear? Assuming he has them at hand – I haven’t caught a whiff of his carriers since Wasp was hit two weeks ago.
I’m still deciding what to do. I really hate to leave KB out there much longer – I’m going to lose some carriers if I do, I think. And those cursed PT boats are still wandering around somewhere. But it might still be worth the risk, if I can retake Ambon. Decisions, decisions…
Here is the abridged combat report for the night battle off Ambon:
Night Time Surface Combat, near Ambon at 76,109, Range 11,000 Yards
Japanese Ships
BB Fuso, Shell hits 20, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Suzuya, Shell hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
CA Furutaka, Shell hits 1, heavy fires
CL Natori, Shell hits 2, on fire
CL Yura, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Akizuki, Shell hits 2, on fire
DD Oshio
DD Michishio, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Yudachi
DD Asagiri
DD Sagiri
Allied Ships
BB Prince of Wales, Shell hits 6
CA Cornwall, Shell hits 1
CA Exeter, Shell hits 1
CA Hawkins, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
CA Frobisher, Shell hits 2
DD Blue, Shell hits 12, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk
DD Helm, Shell hits 1, on fire
DD Mugford, Shell hits 4, on fire
DD Ralph Talbot, Shell hits 1
The Hunters: my SCTF based around Musashi is now about 700 miles southwest of Pearl Harbor. No enemy ships encountered yet, but on the other hand they are undetected as far as I can tell, having slipped through the gap between Johnson and Palmyra.
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