GreyJoy
Posts: 6750
Joined: 3/18/2011 Status: offline
|
Ok guys, now everything is clear. Rader was getting ready for a MASSIVE "Dunkirk" operation to rescue his army stuck at Tulagi. Suddenly, on June 10th 1943, Russell, Thousands and Auki were swimming in fighter planes. My recon counted nearly 1100 fighters between these 3 bases. During the night of the 9/10th 2 japanese SCTFs, composed each by 5 DDs swept Tulagi in order to deal with my PTs. PG Charleston and PC Taney (poor lonely bastards) encountered a sudden death and weren't even able to shoot a single bullet. Same for DMS Hopkins, while my PTs did their best, sinking 2 japanese destroyers in a serie of 15 naval encounters!...i lost 13 PTs in the process.... Then he came with a sumber of "E" class and SCs...but instead of subs they found my DMSs and got mauled. Finally arrived a SCTF of mine, composed of 7 old class DDs....they were supposed to deal with his ACMs so they weren't the best...we exchanged blows with the japanese DDs but 2 of my DDs ate a torp and sunk immediately, while 2 others were seriously damaged. However we left burning and sinking at least 2 more enemies... So the naval battles ended with a little jap victory, with 2 allied DD sunk, 1 big PC and 1 big PG plus the PTs, in exchange of 2 jap DDs and 2 more badly damaged... Then it arrived the fast transport TFs to pick up his troops... Pre-Invasion action off Tulagi (114,137) - Coastal Guns Fire Back! Defensive Guns engage approaching landing force 1295 Coastal gun shots fired in defense. Japanese Ships CL Abukuma APD Kikuzuki, Shell hits 5 APD Asagao APD Mikazuki, Shell hits 1, on fire APD Nagatsuki, Shell hits 3, on fire APD Asakaze, Shell hits 2 PB Kogane Maru, Shell hits 1 PB Konsan Maru PB Kenan Maru PB Kensin Maru PB Kasyu Maru PB Ikuta Maru PB Hirota Maru PB Hokutai Maru PB Hakkaisan Maru PB Akagane Maru APD Oite Japanese ground losses: 3013 casualties reported Squads: 94 destroyed, 92 disabled Non Combat: 7 destroyed, 8 disabled Engineers: 14 destroyed, 23 disabled Vehicles lost 5 (2 destroyed, 3 disabled) Allied ground losses: 7 casualties reported Squads: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled Non Combat: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled nvasion Support action off Tulagi (114,137) - Coastal Guns Fire Back! Defensive Guns engage approaching landing force 721 Coastal gun shots fired in defense. Japanese Ships CL Abukuma, Shell hits 2 APD Kikuzuki, Shell hits 15, heavy fires, heavy damage APD Asagao APD Harukaze APD Asakaze APD Nagatsuki, Shell hits 1 PB Konsan Maru PB Kenan Maru PB Kogane Maru PB Kensin Maru PB Kasyu Maru PB Ikuta Maru PB Hirota Maru PB Hokutai Maru PB Hakkaisan Maru PB Akagane Maru Japanese ground losses: 587 casualties reported Squads: 14 destroyed, 17 disabled Non Combat: 8 destroyed, 15 disabled Engineers: 0 destroyed, 1 disabled Guns lost 82 (28 destroyed, 54 disabled) Vehicles lost 42 (13 destroyed, 29 disabled) As you can see our costal guns didn't do the wonderfull job of the last time and, despite the number of guns firing, the Japs managed to get back their ships more or less in good shape. Mines weren't a big factor cause his midjet subs got them all....(it seems that nearly 18 SSX subs struck mines at Tulagi today...) Only a couple of PB and APDs were sunk by mines... However, after the 2nd day of dunkirking our land troops bombed his divisions at Tulagi and discovered that this mission managed to pick up something like 250 AVs worth of troops...in one single night!...but, using the numbers of troop indicated in the combat report (i know there's FOW) it also seems that "only" 4/5000 men left the beaches... Among those 4/5k men something like 1000 were for sure destroyed during the loading operations by my CD guns...so, in the end, most of his units are still present. However i do not understimate the fact that when he landed there (in Jan 43) he had nearly 80,000 men for more than 2100 AVs and now, after 6 months, only 50,000 japanese are still present on the beaches...so in a way or in another one he managed to save something like 10/15,000 men (i estimate that at least 15k men died during these months). The other important news is that a GREAT surface group is now stationing at Thousands Ships bay, composed of the following ships: Japanese Ships BB Kirishima BB Nagato BB Mutsu BB Fuso BB Yamashiro CA Takao CA Atago CA Maya CA Chokai CA Myoko CA Mikuma CA Suzuya CA Kumano CA Aoba CL Nagara DD Shimakaze DD Kazegumo DD Tamanami DD Natsushio DD Yukikaze DD Isokaze DD Arashi We have to decide what to do now...he has an incredible number of planes and i'm sure the KB is lingering in the shades somewhere... he has 5 battleships supported by CAs and CLs...and he's trying to save his precious experienced army.... should i committ or should i use only minimal assets in order to make him pay a little but withour risking anything important?...
|