CapAndGown
Posts: 3206
Joined: 3/6/2001 From: Virginia, USA Status: offline
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August 15, 1942 Whatever the allied CVs that attacked my picket boat north of Marcus were up to, they turned around and headed home, just as I thought they would. Meanwhile, my own CVs have been conducting their own raid, one group into the Indian Ocean, the other into the very far south Pacific. The Pacific operation stumbled on two very large allied transport TFs. We only attacked one of the TFs, and then not everyone participated in the morning strike. Nevertheless, we managed to sink a large number of xAKs all carrying fuel bound for Australia! The sunk ships list only lists 4 xAKs as sunk, and one DD. But I am quite sure a number of other xAKs were done in as well, along with a DE. I am christening this "The Battle at the Bottom of the World." For tomorrow I have split up KB2 into numerous surface and air combat TFs. The surface TFs are set to patrol with a max reaction range of 6. This disposition of forces will mean that my CVs will not have any escorts next turn. But I am not worried about subs. The main danger is that witpqs may split off his escorts (just DDs and DEs by the looks of things) and try for an intercept. It is a risk I am willing to take. My guess would be that he will scatter his ships to the four winds in single ship TFs. I want to get as many of these as I can, obviously. Carriers and ships were allocated based on their search capability. the CS will drive up the middle so that I can spot the eastern TF whether it goes north or south. The BBs were sent to the west because their float planes can spot the southern TF. In addition, for the CVs, one sentai of Kates was set to 20% search in each TF. For the Taiyo, which only has a sentai of Zeros aboard, I set the Zeros to Naval attack at 100 feet. Maybe their cannons can set the fuel cargo on fire! Morning Air Attack: Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 20 D3A1 Val x 16 Japanese aircraft losses D3A1 Val: 2 damaged Allied Ships xAK Caleb Strong, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage DE Fox, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK John C. Fremont, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Edgar Allan Poe, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage Afternoon Air Attack: Japanese aircraft A6M2 Zero x 54 B5N2 Kate x 34 D3A1 Val x 34 Japanese aircraft losses D3A1 Val: 3 damaged Allied Ships xAK Benjamin Franklin, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires xAK Rufus King, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk DD Henley, Bomb hits 1, heavy fires xAK Samuel Adams, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk xAK Peter Silvester, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK John Page, Torpedo hits 4, and is sunk xAK John Adams, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Stephen J. Field, Bomb hits 1, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Robert Morris, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires xAK John C. Calhoun, Bomb hits 5, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk xAK William Dawes, Torpedo hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage xAK Zachary Taylor, Bomb hits 4, heavy fires, heavy damage
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