IdahoNYer
Posts: 2616
Joined: 9/6/2009
From: NYer living in Boise, ID
Status: offline
|
1-2 Jul 43
Highlights – Battle of Little Andaman as US CV air crushes a counter landing; Port Hedland taken.
Jpn ships sunk:
BB: 1 (Fuso)
AK: 8
Jpn ships unsunk:
DD: 1 (Hatsukaze)
Allied ships sunk:
PT: 5
Air loss:
Jpn: 122
Allied: 97
Subwar:
Jpn: 1 Attack, 0 ships hit
Allies: 1 Attacks, 0 ships hit
Jpn Amph Inv: Little Andaman (IO)
Allied Amph Inv: None
Bases lost: None
Bases Liberated:
Port Hedland (WAUS)
Ontong Java (SOPAC)
SIGINT/Intel: IJN is in fact fully committed to the IO
West Coast/Admin: P-47 production begins! Will be short DDs for a while across the Fleet as the Fletchers begin a short refit.
In NOPAC, NSTR.
In CENPAC, continued troops shuttling to get troops off Maloelap to prepare for future operations.
In SOPAC, Oro Bay invasion troops complete loading at Lunga, and will depart for New Guinea next turn, supported by BB Washington TF and LBA. APDs land parts of a USMC Raider Bn on Ontong Java, seizing the undefended rock. In the air, fighters sweep Rabaul once again, with mixed results, and will repeat with F6Fs next turn - then the focus will shift to New Guinea. Not sure if I can maintain pressure on Rabaul, provide cover for shipping off Bougainville, AND cover the New Guinea operations simultaneously.
In SWPAC, quiet at Bathurst and it should reach AF level 2 next turn. Darwin Flak still heavy, and will need to rest the bombers. Ground troops moving north to Darwin, and once they reach the base, will bring in an infantry regiment via sea - primarily with landing craft. Seventh Fleet is stood up with a CL TF forming at Horn Island, and another CA TF in WAUS also forming. Will slowly add cruisers and additional DDs to the Seventh Fleet as I can free up assets.
In WAUS, Port Hedland falls in the first attack!! The long, long campaign to take the base finally ends - retaken 11 months to the day it was taken by the IJA! Spitfires are flown in for CAP, and will continue to build up the base. One Bde will begin an overland pursuit of the withdrawing IJA troops towards Broome. P-38s are being recalled back from SWPAC, and once arrived, will begin gaining air superiority over Broome.
In China, the threat to Chungking from the west continues to worsen, not much can be done. Looks to be a wide attempt at encirclement, aimed all the way to cut off the rail just north of Kweiyang. The P-38s at Kumning are withdrawn back to Burma for the upcoming air offensive against Magwe.
In Burma, the P-47 has arrived! Two squadrons are landed at Cochin, India and will rail up to Calcutta. Once these squadrons are fully operational - maybe a week - will begin full press operations against Magwe. To that, other than mining operations in support of fleet operations in the Indian Ocean against Tavoy and Victoria Point, as well as the usual night time raids against Magwe, the bomber fleet will rest and refit.
In the IO, Spruance’s CV TF arrives off the Andamans just in time to catch the IJN - not the expected bombardment run or the KB venturing in the IO, but a counter landing at Little Andaman Island. Truthfully, I’m caught flat-footed at the prospect of a counter landing - and as usual, L_S_T has brought the entire IJN with him to support the estimated 2 Regiments and support troops trying to land. But this time, the naval forces aren’t as synchronized as normal, and the amphibious TF, with plenty of BBs in support (all but Nagato, Mutsu and Kongo are accounted for) are caught by the US CVs landing troops at Little Andaman. The first day, there is no CAP, and the US CVs launch strikes both AM and PM. The 2nd day, the KB arrives to the SE and provides LRCAP, but again, both AM and PM strikes are launched. The strikes go in with minimal fragmentation, and the escort was sufficient to get the bombers through on the second day. Biggest issue was the BBs present, as they “ate” most of the SBD’s bombing of course - bouncing 1000lb bombs off the armor. TBFs pretty much ran out of torps by the afternoon of the second day, and only managed 4 torp hits on the BBs - three on Fuso. The only attack on the US CVs was an unescorted strike of 5 Jills, which met a wall of CAP. By the end of the two days, the counter landings were crushed - two IJN IN regiments, the 74th and 78th plus some support were caught mostly on the ships and any troops landed were eliminated by ground troops. Fuso is reported sunk, and might just be, but the other BBs were likely just dented. 8 big AKs were sunk, and perhaps a few more might not make it. Perhaps CL Katori and CA Myoko are damaged heavily and perhaps a DD as well. On the debit side, the US planes are pretty exhausted, CVs are pretty much out of torpedoes and half the sortie allowance expended. CV air losses were about half replaced by the CVE Repl - works great, but need more CVEs. That all in mind, I figure the IJN to withdraw - although, the KB is fairly fresh, and might come out for a fight, although I don’t think that’s likely. With the KB untouched, I’m pulling the CVs back to Ceylon to rearm - any counter landing ideas have been thwarted, and I’d rather engage the KB with a full tank of gas - full complement, torps, and sorties avail. I may be missing an opportunity here, but I’m in no real rush, the Port Blair position will just get stronger.
Below is a role up of the damage inflicted at Little A:
quote:
Japanese Ships
BB Haruna, Bomb hits 21, on fire, Torpedo hits 1, on fire
BB Kirishima, Bomb hits 22, on fire
BB Hiei, Bomb hits 14
BB Fuso, Bomb hits 9, Torpedo hits 3, on fire, heavy damage
BB Hyuga, Bomb hits 18, on fire
BB Ise, Bomb hits 20, on fire
CA Takao, Bomb hits 2
CA Myoko, Bomb hits 4, on fire
CL Katori, Bomb hits 2, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage
CL Oyodo, Bomb hits 1, on fire
DD Akikaze, Bomb hits 1, on fire
AK Arimasan Maru, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
AK Azuma Maru, Bomb hits 2, on fire, torpedo hits 2, and is sunk
AK Tokyo Maru, Bomb hits 3, Torpedo hits 3, and is sunk
AK Kashii Maru, Torpedo hits 1, Bomb hits 2, heavy fires, heavy damage, and is sunk
AK Kano Maru, Torpedo hits 1, Bomb hits 8, heavy damage, and is sunk
AK Arizona Maru, Bomb hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage, and is sunk
AK Kinai Maru, Torpedo hits 2, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage, and is sunk
AK Myoko Maru, Bomb hits 7, Torpedo hits 1, on fire, heavy damage, and is sunk
AK Goyo Maru, Bomb hits 3, heavy fires, heavy damage
AK Kansai Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy damage, heavy fires, heavy damage
AK Atutasan Maru, Bomb hits 6, heavy fires, heavy damage
AK Hawaii Maru, Bomb hits 4, on fire, heavy fires, heavy damage
Japanese ground losses:
1243 casualties reported
Squads: 3 destroyed, 13 disabled
Non Combat: 36 destroyed, 26 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 4 (3 destroyed, 1 disabled)
Vehicles lost 1 (1 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Japanese ground losses:
5053 casualties reported
Squads: 79 destroyed, 62 disabled
Non Combat: 88 destroyed, 112 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 59 (46 destroyed, 13 disabled)
Japanese ground losses:
735 casualties reported
Squads: 21 destroyed, 29 disabled
Non Combat: 33 destroyed, 15 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Guns lost 10 (6 destroyed, 4 disabled)
Vehicles lost 10 (10 destroyed, 0 disabled)
Japanese ground losses:
844 casualties reported
Squads: 17 destroyed, 64 disabled
Non Combat: 30 destroyed, 52 disabled
Engineers: 0 destroyed, 0 disabled
Vehicles lost 25 (13 destroyed, 12 disabled)
 Attachment (1)
|
Printable Version
RE: 19-20 Jun 43 - 
about the Med being open, so I've been sending ships and air units from the US to Capetown still. Arrgh! 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread