John 3rd
Posts: 17178
Joined: 9/8/2005 From: La Salle, Colorado Status: offline
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July 2, 1942 Summary for the Battle of Exmouth Bay June 15-23, 1942 Since I have been able to get a lot written, I thought perhaps some summary might work best in describing the action over the last several weeks. We'll start with the Battle of Exmouth. This fight occurred when Dan decided to go after Exmouth and Carnavon and I had decided to withdraw the major ground units used to threaten Geraldton. Dan brought the kitchen sink (4 US CVs and LOTS of escorts) while I had begun moving troops, had brought in SS and LBA, and had the little KB lurking in the shadows near the fight. Over the course of roughly ten days we slugged away at each and both of us might just proclaim it a victory. The Japanese managed to withdraw their major combat units as planned, as well as reposition them and others, and seriously blood the Allies. Japan loses Carnavon but that was part of the plan to begin with so no big loss there. The Allies could call it a victory because they inflicted damage to a number of Japanese ships and captured 50% of their objective. Definitely a toss-up when one looks at the results. This is the first time I have gone back through my notes so lets see just what the losses turned out to be: Japanese Ship Losses: 10 DD (7 Old--3 New), 3 SC, 3 AP, 3 AK Aerial losses were fairly light considering I was flying into the teeth of 4 US CV's airpower. Roughly 80 planes were lost during the entire fight. These have been made up for with replacement pilots and aircraft at little expense to the Pool. Allied Ship Losses BB New Mexico, CA Astoria, 7 DD, 4 AP, 10 AK Several American CAs, CLs, and DDs were seriously damaged. Japanese SS did QUITE well with the following results. Some of these ships were sunk and others just damaged: 6-15 I-158 AK Alchiba (Exmouth) 6-16 I-153 AK Tweedbank (Exmouth), I-153 AK Testbank and AP Ormiston (Exmouth) 6-17 Ro-33 AP Ormiston--SUNK (Carnavon) 6-18 I-157 AK Trieste and AK Arctusus (Carnavon) 6-20 I-157 CA Astoria (Exmouth) The loss of 10 DDs hurts but the majority were older so (I guess) that helps some. His losses were serious but inconsequential. The real determination as to the results of this battle shall be in Dan's moves coming up. If there is little action in this arena for the next couple of months then we did well. If he tries to follow-up the attack then things are up in the air.
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< Message edited by John 3rd -- 4/7/2013 3:35:05 PM >
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