Q-Ball
Posts: 7336
Joined: 6/25/2002 From: Chicago, Illinois Status: offline
|
2-13-1944 Koepang, Part II: Today, nothing happened much. Yesterday, we pretty much cleared out the IJN surface forces from the area, suffering high losses in the process. THE PLAN: I thought about keeping my CVs aggressively postured, but decided that was a bad idea; our pilots were a bit tired from the day before, and no reason to face KB at a disadvantage. With 1 CVE sunk and 2 more damaged, I only had 2 CVE, 6 CV, and 6 CVL to face KB; not bad, but I don't want that fight until I can smash them. With 4-5 IJN CVE's sunk, we evened those odds for next time. So, we pulled back for daylight, but I sent some surface TFs toward Koepang to intercept cripples. NIGHT PHASE: This was a big whiff. Some IJN shipping retreated toward Lautem rather than Koepang; nice move, I would have intercepted them at Koepang. They got away. I was hoping to get HARUNA, which I knew was out of ammo from all the fights the night before. DAY PHASE: Had we not withdrawn, there would have been a CV battle, and he would have had some LBA support. As it was, some the LBA sortied, and we shot down about 150 IJN planes for no shipping losses. He's lost close to 1000 planes in the last few days, and we've lost maybe 250, but most of those are NAVY types I have plenty of. NEXT STEPS: I am not going to land in the teeth of KB; I have a tactical victory, and he may stop me at this particular spot. However, while he was engaged here, we have taken 4 bases north of Ambon, and I already have engineers building airstrips. Ambon and Namlea are closed, and I will invade shortly. He can't be at both places at the same time. My tactical handling has left alot to be desired here, but at least we planned it so matter what we could advance umolested SOMEWHERE.
Attachment (1)
< Message edited by Q-Ball -- 9/26/2013 3:40:11 AM >
_____________________________
|