apbarog
Posts: 3769
Joined: 5/23/2002 Status: offline
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19 Aug 42 Yesterday, I chose to send my one cruiser task force full speed from Luganville to Ndeni at night, hoping for an enemy bombardment task force. I guessed correctly. The fight was primarily at short range: Japanese Ships CA Tone, Shell hits 3, on fire CA Atago, Shell hits 1 CA Maya, Shell hits 8, on fire CA Chokai, Shell hits 7, on fire DD Hagikaze, Shell hits 1 DD Tanikaze DD Nenohi, Shell hits 1 DD Hatsushima Allied Ships CA Houston CA Australia, Shell hits 17, Torpedo hits 1, and is sunk CL Marblehead, Shell hits 2, on fire CL Boise, Shell hits 6, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage DD Henley, Shell hits 2 DD Jarvis, Shell hits 7, heavy fires Boise sank before the day was done. The rest of the Allied ships will survive. At this point, the enemy was not in danger of losing any ships. Then 4 US PT boats fought the enemy: Japanese Ships CA Tone, on fire CA Atago CA Maya, on fire CA Chokai, Torpedo hits 1, heavy fires, heavy damage DD Hagikaze, Shell hits 1 DD Tanikaze, Shell hits 1 DD Nenohi DD Hatsushima Allied Ships PT-36 PT-37 PT-38 PT-39, Shell hits 1, and is sunk It's very likely that Chokai sank, based on how far the ships moved after the fight. Still not an even trade, but better than nothing. Atago and Tone then did attempt to bombard Ndeni, but hit nothing. The bombardment force headed northeast, toward Nauru. I'm moving subs into the projected path to Nauru. The enemy may go directly to Truk though. Cruiser Canberra made a nuisance bombardment of Rossel Island, off the tip of New Guinea. I did this just to keep my opponent looking in that direction also. And then off the north coast of Borneo, the end of ARD Dewey: Japanese Ships CL Yura Allied Ships ARD YFD-1 Dewey, Shell hits 26, Torpedo hits 2, and is sunk I will remember the name "Yura" and hunt this ship down sometime in the future. During the day, 24 Zeros sweep Lunga, finding 46 US fighters on CAP. The enemy lost more planes. However, I had an APD task force that was supposed to slip into Lunga at night and unload, and leave before daylight. I'd had good success with this up till now. They unloaded completely, but were still at Lunga when daylight came. First 15 Vals escorted by 123 Zeros(!!!) swept the skies of US fighters and then got bomb hits on 2 APD's. That was followed by 18 Kates escorted by only 66 Zeros, which handled the few fighters left on CAP, and then got 2 torpedo hits on one of the badly damaged APD's. APD Gilmer sank. APD Sands is damaged by bomb hits and will run full speed south. The undamaged APD's will run toward Luganville at full speed. At least the APD's delivered the troops that they had loaded. Today's air losses were 26 Zeros and 2 Kates versus 15 P40Es, 11 P400s, and 5 F4F-3s. My fighter groups are now depleted, so I send all undamaged planes elsewhere. I'm sure my opponent noticed how effective over 100 Zeros from KB can be. No point in leaving scraps at Lunga. I'll come back when the units are refilled. Allied carriers now head to Noumea to refuel. I still don't see any invasion task forces. I'm wondering if this whole display is just something to draw my carriers out. No matter. I continue to build and dig in. Lunga became a level 4 airfield today.
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